How Mr. Grey can whip your marketing into a frenzy

Want to know how to build a sustainable marketing strategy without working up a sweat? Discover how Fifty Shades Darker could help you put the ‘O’ in ROI and make a big difference to your February campaigns.

When it comes to marketing, there are many different elements to consider. What platform to use to communicate, whether to lead with an offer, and if so, what should this be? Question after question, headache after headache.

In fact, according to a recent McKinsey report, today’s workforce spends 61% of their time managing their work instead of actually doing it.

Well, grab your pink fluffy handcuffs and lock yourself in, because the next couple of lines could really change your outlook on how you sell and how you communicate. Here goes…

Knowing what your customer wants might not be the be all and end all. After all, how can a customer know what they like or what they’re missing, if they haven’t even heard of your business or truly understand what you do?

In Fifty Shades, Anastasia Steele never knew what she liked until Mr. Grey worked his magic. Therefore, if you’re serious about taking action, giving your February marketing campaigns a real thrust, and seeing a great ROI, I suggest you read on…

Tap into your Mr. Grey

Mr. Grey knows what he likes. He seductively seduces and teases Anastasia Steele. But most importantly, he delivers. Think of this in business terms. Contrary to popular belief, your customers don’t always know what they want because they are sometimes not informed about what’s available. So, it’s your job to help them decide by telling them exactly what they’re missing out on.

‘Be manipulative’ you say? No. It’s just a case of exposing your audience to the potential and power of your products or services. For example, if you’re an IT company with a new security service, or a plasterer with an offer to share, what makes you different to any others in your industry and why should I even read your communication? In other words, what’s your unique selling proposition? What makes you worth a customer’s time or money? Why should we read your flyer, email, ad, or tweet?

Most businesses have USPs and know what they are, but simply don’t project them effectively. Google introduced us to the idea of ‘micro-moments’, stating that businesses only have a brief second to influence consumers’ minds. This hypothesis is very accurate given the fact that 82% of smartphone users turn to their phone to influence a purchase decision. So, if you’re not showcasing your USPs via an effective platform and giving them a reason to remember you, the chances are, you’ll be overlooked.

That’s where a highly lucrative means of marketing and communicating comes in. Where others like to call it mobile marketing, we like to call it 50 Shades of SMS.

Add a little 50 Shades to your marketing

If there was ever a way to add some spice to your marketing antics and boost your return on investment, text messaging could definitely help.

SMS has an open rate of 98%, with nine out of 10 consumers reading it within the first three minutes. So, in retrospect, one simple business text message can almost guarantee that your customers will see your USP, offer or communication.

The Royal Exchange Theatre used bulk text messages to increase box office ticket sales from the student and youth market. As a result, they generated the highest response rates of any previous marketing campaign, averaging at 8% to 20%. They also saw a 50% increase in the number of people subscribing to receive text alerts.

In 2016, motor vehicle retailer giants, Lookers, used bulk SMS marketing and ticketing to create a personalised ticket with an offer on a selection of their cars. The result was a profit of over £74,000 for a spend of just £1,800. This represented a return of investment of over 4000%!

The fact is, these companies used text messaging’s incomparable open rate and 32% response rate as pulling power to highlight their message and subtly influence their customers’ minds. (Mr. Grey would be so proud.)

Mobile marketing and communications enables you to break down the barrier of time and distractions. On average, an email enjoys an open rate of less than 23% across all industries – and that’s not even considering the time it’s took for the user to log into their account. Furthermore, 62% of small business owners believe that boosted Facebook Ads are missing their targets – thus, begging the question whether they’re even effective at all.

On the other hand, business text messaging allows you to reach your customers anywhere. Research by mobilesquared for our latest white paper: Mobile Marketing for Small and Medium Sized Businesses, found that 63% of people have read a text message whilst they’re watching TV and 48% whilst they’re shopping. Even 3% of people have admitted to reading one during sex! (Which could be misconstrued as a bad thing…)

The underlining point is that you have the power to reach your audience during every stage of their day. So, instead of making the same moves and taking the same avenues to communicate, try something new. Young Anastasia Steele opened her eyes to the ways of Mr. Grey, and the results were ultra-satisfying. Add SMS to your marketing and communications arsenal, and you might just profit.